Today's graphical user interface (GUI) environments allow a user to select a set of objects, such as icons, pictures, files, etc., which are then virtually placed in a clipboard or moved to a temporary storage region corresponding to an application. While the objects are in the clipboard, the objects are viewed as a single set and the user may perform an operation on the object set (delete, move, etc.) or cancel the object set to discard the objects from the clipboard. The GUI requires the user to discard the objects before allowing the user to establish a new object set in the clipboard, which prohibits the user from comparing an old object set with a new object set.